Crisis in South Africa Land Reform Movement
July 18, 2003
The Landless People's Movement (LPM) rejects and condemns the decision of the National Land Committees(NLC) Board to dismiss NLC Director Zakes Hlatshwayo, and demands that the Board immediately withdraws this decision and restores Hlatshwayo to his rightful place as the head of the NGO network that has previously supported our movement.
| Landless People's Movement |
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| South Africa |
LANDLESS PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT
NATIONAL COUNCIL URGENT PRESS STATEMENT
"LPM REJECTS NLC BOARDS EFFORTS TO CRUSH LANDLESS STRUGGLE AND VOWS TO FIGHT UNTIL ZAKES IS BACK"
The Landless People's Movement - an independent national movement of
poor and landless people struggling for land reform across South
Africa - rejects and condemns the decision of the National Land
Committees(NLC) Board to dismiss NLC Director Zakes Hlatshwayo, and
demands that the Board immediately withdraws this decision and
restores Hlatshwayo to his rightful place as the head of the NGO
network that has previously supported our movement.
The LPM regards the NLC Board's decision to dismiss Zakes as the
first of a series of illegal actions aimed at crushing the LPM and
the ability of poor and landless people to wage a militant land
struggle through an independent and autonomous movement capable of
advancing its own positions and strategies. These illegal actions are
being pursued by a cabal of certain petit-bourgeois NGO people who
claim to support poor and landless people but who are really only
interested in protecting their own class interests by forcing us to
sit and wait patiently for more than 150 years for our stolen land to
be returned to us. This NGO cabal knows very well that we, the
26-million poor and landless people of South Africa, are sick and
tired of waiting for more broken promises from the government to give
us back our land. But ever since we marched against the WSSD last
year, this NGO cabal has tried to crush and take over the LPM to stop
us from implementing our own programmes, including the TAKE BACK THE
LAND! CAMPAIGN and the NO LAND! NO VOTE! CAMPAIGN. As the LPM, we
are fully aware that this NGO cabal is motivated by political and
personal agendas which have nothing to do with supporting our
struggle for land.
The LPM National Council, which met last week the NLC Board in an
effort to convince them to stop their witch-hunt against Zakes and
other members of the NLC which we regard as an attack on us
condemns this attempt by the NGO cabal that controls the NLC Board to
interfere with the legitimate plans and actions of our movement. The
LPM National Council is fully aware that Zakes dismissal, which
coincides with the recent arrest of seven of our leading LPM Gauteng
youth members on trumped-up murder charges, is part of a concerted
effort by the ruling party to destroy our movement in the run-up to
next years general election.
This clique of NGO people who run the Board of the NLC does not even
have the support of its own staff, who have taken a clear position,
through the NLC Networks National Staff Forum (NLC-NSF), to demand
that Zakes be reinstated. The LPM supports and applauds this
courageous position taken by the NLC-NSF, which coincides with our
own position, and offers its solidarity to all staff and management
in the NLC Network who choose to stand with us against the tiny NGO
cabal that wants to destroy us. The NGO cabal has declared war on our
movement, and the LPM is now standing to fight back.
The LPM National Council has mandated our comrades in the LPM Gauteng
to begin a mass mobilisation in support of our demands that Zakes be
immediately and unconditionally re-instated, and that the NLC Board
immediately stops trying to interfere with our affairs by removing
people from the NLC who support us. Zakes Hlatshwayo has been a
committed land activist for many years whose support has been
critical to the formation and building of the LPM. He has our full
support, and we will fight for him to the end. Our mobilisation,
which began with a joint picket outside the NLC National Office
yesterday together with representatives of the NLC-NSF, continues
today with an occupation of the NLC National Office and will go on
until this matter is resolved in the interests of the LPM and the
poor and landless majority of our country.
The LPM National Council calls on all media who are supporting the
struggle of the poor and landless to cover todays sit-in and our
ongoing mobilisation. We are now occupying the NLC Office at 20 De
Korte Street, Braamfontein, where we are currently detaining NLC
Board Chairperson Wayne Jordaan until he and the rest of his NGO
cabal change their decision!
ISSUED BY: THE LANDLESS PEOPLES MOVEMENT NATIONAL COUNCIL ON 18 JULY, 2003
FOR MORE INFO: CONTACT LPM NATIONAL ORGANISER MANGALISO KUBHEKA ON
072-127-4055 OR LPM NATIONAL PROJECTS & EDUCATION OFFICER MAUREEN
MNISI ON 084-706-1388. ###
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